InterConneX for iPad

Sharing With Others

OverviewInterConneX is an iPad app that that lets you create a repository of files and data right on your iPad. It provides for exchanging files and data between apps on your device, other devices — and even Macs — running ChronoAgent or InterConneX, remote files via an SFTP Server connection, as well as select cloud storage services. This can be particularly useful when you are away from your Mac and wish to access and manipulate files remotely.

The Basics Upon initial launch, InterConneX will create two sharespaces automatically to get you started: “My Files” and “Public Files.” These sharespaces can be modified to meet your needs. Also, more sharespaces can be created to include just the files and folders you are interested in sharing.

The “My Files” sharespace is a private sharespace. It exists on your device and only someone with direct access to it can access files stored within it. It's like a mini-hard drive on which to place files.

The “Public Files” sharespace is just that — a public sharespace in which anyone else with a copy of InterConneX can view and manipulate files. It's like a mini file server where other users can access files. You would generally not want to place private or sensitive documents in this sharespace since anyone else can see them. Instead you would use “Public Files” as a common repository where other users can place or retrieve documents. You can copy files back and forth between the “My Files” and “Public Files” sharespace as desired.

Tutorial This tutorial will show you how to create sharespaces that others can connect to and how to create a sharespace that connects to other devices. At the same time, it will go into further detail about sharespaces so you can gain a greater understanding of the sharespace concept.

When you are finished reading this document, read the other documents — Getting Started, Item Selection, Actions & Tools, Document Exchange and Pasteboard Exchange — to learn how to use specific areas of InterConneX in more detail.

Online Resources This document and other online resources can be found on the Econ Technologies’ website: https://www.econtechnologies.com/icx-ipad-docs.html

www.econtechnologies.com

Modifying “Public Files” Settings

As mentioned in the introduction, InterConneX creates a “Public Files” sharespace upon initial launch. It is a local, published sharespace that anyone with InterConneX can access. The settings that you would most likely want to change are the name, size and the access restrictions.

• Upon launch, you’ll see your sharespaces listed in the left sidebar. • To modify settings, tap on “Edit.”

• Tap on the ‘i’ to the right of the “Public Files” sharespace.

The default name of the sharespace is “Public Files.” It appears on the network as “Public Files on <your-device-name>.” The “Public Files” name is how you locally refer to this sharespace and "Public Files on <your-device-name>" is how other users on the network will refer to it. Both of these names can be changed.

Suppose you’re a graphic artist and you want to create a sharespace of image files that only your clients can access. You’ll have an area for them to view the images you created and for them to send image ideas to you. You’ll want to name the published sharespace something unique and meaningful so that these users have an idea of what’s inside. You’ll also want to make sure the sharespace has read/write access so that your clients can share their ideas and put their files into the sharespace.

• Tap on the “Name” field.

• Enter a name for your sharespace. This name will be how you locally refer to the sharespace. You’ll have to tap on the ‘x’ to clear the existing name.

• Tap on “Back.” • Tap on the “Published as” field.

• Enter a custom published name that would be unique on the network.

If you leave this blank, other users will see the published name as “<local-name on name-of-device>.”

• Tap on the “Back” button.

Here’s how the sharespace setup panel looks after changing the names to more meaningful names.

• To change the size, tap on the “Storage Capacity” field.

• Select the size limit of your sharespace. The size you choose is a limit, it does not occupy that amount of space on your device. Instead, it limits the amount of data that can be stored.

When choosing the size limit, keep in mind that other users will be connecting to this sharespace and possibly copying files to it. If too large of a limit is set, the contents may consume all of the available storage on your device.

• To change the access restrictions of the sharespace, tap on “Restrictions.”

The default “Public Files” sharespace has no access restrictions in place. It is truly a public sharespace. Anyone with InterConneX will see it on the network and will be able to connect to it. If you're not comfortable with that, you can clamp down on the access by requiring a username and password to gain access to it.

• Turn ON “Require Login.” • Tap in the “User name” field and type in a user name. • Tap in the “Password” field and type in a password. • Decide what kind of access you want users who connect to your sharespace to

have.

When you have restricted access on a sharespace, you’re only allowing trusted users to gain access to it. Those users must supply the username and password that you specified during set up. All others will be locked out.

• When done, tap on “Back.”

• Tap on “Done” to save your changes.

Additional Sharespace Options

You can also create sharespaces so that only you control what’s put inside. Say you just returned from a month-long African walkabout. Your friends and family are eager to see your photos. You need a common area that they can access for viewing. In this case, you don’t want them to have the capability of copying anything to your sharespace; you just want them to view what’s inside. Here, you’d opt for a read-only sharespace.

• Tap on the “+” to add a new sharespace.

• You want “Local (this device)” so make sure that’s selected.

• Tap on “Next.”

• Choose the amount of storage for the sharespace.

• Tap on “Next.”

• Provide a unique sharespace name. In the future, this is how you will locally refer to this sharespace.

• Tap on “Next.”• Turn “Accessible to Others” ON. This is done so that your family and friends can

see the photos you put into the sharespace.

• Tap on “Next.”

• Provide a name that others will see on the network when trying to connect.

• Tap on “Next.”

So that everyone can have access to your sharespace, there is no need to authenticate and restrict access. Therefore, keep “Require Login” turned OFF. Keep in mind that you are placing files in that sharespace for anyone on the network with InterConneX to see.

• Tap on “Read-Only.” Other users can only retrieve information from this sharespace. They can't place anything there or delete anything.

• Tap on “Next.”• Review the settings and, if satisfied, tap on “Save.” Before doing so, you may

decide you wish to allow all contents of this sharespace to be shared with other apps. If this is your desire, turn “Share with other Apps” ON. Other apps will be able to access and share the contents of this sharespace (only if the app supports document sharing).

Now others can remotely connect to your sharespace and review the photos you choose to include in the sharespace.

You can create multiple sharespaces to fulfill various needs. Perhaps you want a sharespace that only friends and family can access and another one just for clients. Simply create multiple sharespaces for each role! Be mindful of the storage space burden you might be placing on your device.

Once you have various sharespaces, you may wish to order them a certain way when they are presented in the Sharespaces list. Important or often-used sharespaces can be rearranged to appear at the top whereas less important or less-used ones can be moved to the bottom of the list.

• Tap on “Edit.”

• Click, hold and drag on the three horizontal bars to the right of the listed sharespace to move to the desired location.

• Tap on “Done” to save your changes.

Connecting to a Remote Sharespace

If you have a friend who just returned from an Australian walkabout and you want to compare their experience to your African one, you will want to get access to their public sharespace they filled with photos. You’ll need to create a sharespace that connects to their remote InterConneX sharespace.

When viewing the sharespaces in the left sidebar, you’ll notice that “Available Remote Sharespaces” are listed. These are the names of already-published InterConneX sharespaces available on the network.

• Tap on “Dave’s Australian Walkabout.”

InterConneX will attempt to immediately connect to the selected remote sharespace. If the sharespace does not require authentication, it should connect immediately. If it does require authentication, a login prompt will be presented.

Once connected, the sharespace behaves as if it were a defined sharespace. It will appear in the first group of sharespaces but with italic text. It will stay there as long as the InterConneX instance is running.

Choosing a sharespace from the “Available Remote Sharespaces” list is a convenient way to quickly connect to a sharespace and it’s ideal when you plan on only using that sharespace limitedly. In the case of our example, since you just want to view Dave’s photos one time, this is a perfect scenario. If you plan on using that sharespace often, you can make it a permanent by just editing it. See the section on “Editing Available Remote Sharespaces.”

Editing Available Remote Sharespaces

Any published InterConneX sharespaces on your local network for which you have NOT already defined a sharespace profile for will appear in the “Available Remote Sharespaces” group. As mentioned before, this is a convenient way to quickly connect to a remote sharespace that you don’t plan on using frequently. If you do plan on using this sharespace frequently, you can edit the sharespace so that it will be listed in your defined sharespaces permanently.

• Tap on “Dave’s Australian Walkabout.”

InterConneX will attempt to connect to the sharespace. If the sharespace does not require authentication, it should connect immediately. If it does require authentication, a login prompt will be presented.

Once you’re connected, you’ll notice that “Dave’s Australian Walkabout” is in your sharespaces list, listed in italics. The italic font signifies that it is a temporary sharespace.

• Tap “Edit.”

Even though it’s a temporary sharespace, you can edit it. Note that, once edited, it becomes permanent.

• Tap on the ‘i’ icon to the right of the sharespace.

• You are presented with this window. Here, you can edit the settings.

• Provide a unique sharespace name for local reference.

• Tap on “Back.”• Tap on “Security.” • Tap “Require Access Code.”

Every sharespace you define can be passcode protected. This is a layer of security in addition to any others that may be in place, such as remote sharespaces requiring username and password as well as the local device lock.

An access code is sharespace specific. Setting a sharespace access code for “Dave’s Walkabout” will only secure that particular sharespace.

• When greeted with the “Define Passcode” screen, enter in a 6-digit number for your passcode.

Be sure this passcode is easy to remember!

• Verify the 6-digit passcode.

• Tap on “Auto-lock.”

The auto-lock setting determines what the timeout interval is. Specifying a timeout interval is convenient when you plan on switching back and forth between InterConneX and other apps and don’t wish to enter a passcode each time.

• Choose a timeout interval.

• Tap on “Back.”

• Tap on “Restrict Editing Only.”

When this is ON, the passcode will only apply to the editing of sharespaces. This lets you configure a sharespace on a device that everyone is free to access, but they won’t be allowed to change any of its settings.

• Tap on “Back.”• Review your settings before tapping on “Done.” Before doing so, you may decide

you wish to allow all contents of this sharespace to be shared with other apps. If this is your desire, turn “Share with other Apps” ON. Other apps will be able to access and share the contents of this sharespace (only if the app supports document sharing).

Connecting to a Computer via ChronoAgent

ChronoAgent is a companion application to ChronoSync that facilitates remote backup and synchronization. InterConneX can connect to a ChronoAgent giving you full access to all of the files, folders and storage devices on the computer running ChronoAgent. Setting up a ChronoAgent sharespace is just as easy as a remote InterConneX sharespace.

• Tap on the “+” icon to add a new sharespace.

• Tap on “A remote ChronoAgent computer.”

• Tap on “Next.”

• Tap on the desired ChronoAgent from the “Available ChronoAgents” list.

• Tap on “Next.”

TIPYou can also connect to a ChronoAgent by specifying an IP address/domain name, if you want to connect to one that is not listed on the network. The benefits of doing this is that the ChronoAgent is accessible from anywhere in the world. You can create your own “private cloud!”

• Supply the “User name” and “Password” required to access the remote ChronoAgent.

Once you enter these in, you can “Test Login Settings” to ensure the user name/password combination is correct.

If you wish to have InterConneX prompt for the password on connection, turn “Pre-Authorized” OFF.

• Once done with these settings, tap on “Next.” • If you leave “Auto Connect” ON, InterConneX will attempt to connect to that

ChronoAgent every time the app is activated and the ChronoAgent is visible on the network.

If turned OFF, you will have to manually connect when you wish to access the ChronoAgent.

This is a great feature if you frequently need to access a remote ChronoAgent. It may, though, introduce an undue burden on your device if you define a lot of remote ChronoAgent sharespaces. If so, you should think twice about enabling Auto-Connect for many of them. Memory and CPU consumption goes up for each active sharespace and it might not be worth it for sharespaces that are seldom used.

• Tap on “Next.” • Provide a unique sharespace name for local reference.

• Tap on “Next.”• Review your settings before tapping on “Save.” Before doing so, you may decide

you wish to allow all contents of this sharespace to be shared with other apps. If this is your desire, turn “Share with other Apps” ON. Other apps will be able to access and share the contents of this sharespace (only if the app supports document sharing).

Connecting to Other Services

In its present form, InterConneX offers sharespace connectivity with a handful of cloud services, remote files via an SFTP Server connection and other devices running InterConneX and ChronoAgent. At this time, support for Backblaze B2, Amazon S3 and Google Cloud are implemented. Support for other online services and storage protocols will be made available in future releases of InterConneX. This will make InterConnex the "one stop shop" for all your document sharing needs!

Conclusion

Now that you have learned how to create sharespaces that others can connect to and how to create a sharespace that connects to other devices, you should have a really good handle on using InterConneX and its many uses.